Leonardo’s life

« As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death »
Leonardo da Vinci

Meet one of the greatest minds of all times

From his home
Tuscany to his death at the Clos Lucé on May the 2nd 1519, Leonardo
da Vinci has tried to unveil the secrets of nature and physics, which are the
basis of his work.

Five hundred
years later, Leonardo da Vinci is still present in our daily life through his
heritage. He keeps fascinating us and inspires novelists, filmmakers and even
the videogame industry. This man, dreaming of making men fly and imagining the
future, this painter, inventor, engineer, scientific, humanist and
philosopher,remains immortal.

The
Château du Clos Lucé, bearing the mark left by the Master, has a mission of
giving an overview of the work of Leonardo to the general public. From the beginning
to the end of the visit, experience this funny feeling, that the genius was
just there, just a moment ago.

Seven key moments in the life of a genius

1452

Birth of Leonardo da Vinci in Tuscany. He
is the illegitimate child of a notary and a peasant.

1467

At only 15, his father makes him join Andrea
del Verrocchio’s polytechnic studio in Florence.

There, he meets Sandro Botticelli. He paints
The Baptism of Christ (1475),
preserved at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

1477

Leonardo da Vinci leaves Verrocchio’s studio.

He paints The Adoration of the Magi (1481), preserved at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

1482

Leonardo heads to
Milan to be in the service of duke Ludovic Sforza, known as the Moor. He improves his skills as an architect and
starts imagining a great number of war machines.

He paints Virgin of
the Rocks (1483)
preserved at the Louvres.

And The
Last Supper (1494-97)
preserved in the refectory of the Santa Maria delle
Grazie convent in Milan.

1503

Leonardo da Vinci starts painting Mona Lisa(1503-06) and invents the sfumato technique, the misty effect revealing a mysterious glare on the painted faces.
He paints
The Virgin and Childwith St.Anne (1510) preserved at the Louvres and St.John the Baptist (1515).

1516

Leonardo bids farewell to Italy and heads for the Château du Clos Lucé in Amboise after being invited by the king of France.

1519

Leonardo da Vinci passes away in his bedroom at the Clos Lucé. King Francis I mourns in tears the man he used to call « Father ».

02

Leonardo painter and sculptor

« The painter has to become universal »
Leonardo Da Vinci

Admire the realism of his work

To paint as real as possible, that is the Master’s motivation.
To obtain this, he studies human and animal anatomy by dissection. At that
time, corpses can’t be preserved in cold rooms so they decay rapidly. Leonardo
da Vinci has then very little time to study and learn everything there is to
know about the human body; he reproduces even the slightest detail in his
drawings and sketches. Besides using the traditional theories of proportions,
as shown with his emblematic Vitruvian Man, Da Vinci thinks about his models
from a functional point of view, and from the inside. This way he can perfectly
grasp the movements, the strength and, as he perceives it, the soul of the
creatures he studies.

Leonardo da Vinci the sculptor

Leonardo
is passionate about sculpture; each piece is a true technical challenge. His
most beautiful sculpture would have been an eight meters tall bronze horse, in
honour of Francesco Sforza, founder of the dynasty. Even thought Leonardo da
Vinci did solve the many issues of its conception, the project will never be
completed since Ludovic Sforza decided to use all the available bronze to the
manufacturing of canons to defend Milan from the approaching of Louis XII’s
troops.

03

Leonardo the visionary

« All our knowledge comes from our sensitivity »
Leonardo da Vinci

Look for the genius’ mark on your daily life

In
the basement of the castle, four rooms allow us to fully understand the
knowledge of the engineer Leonardo da Vinci. 3D animations and up to forty
models, made by IBM using the same material as in that time, illustrate the
diversity of Leonardo’s intuition: the automobile, the aerial screw, the
assault chariot…

The
collection of sketches from the codex and the exhibited models share his
intense desire for unveiling the mechanics of life.

Witness Leonardo’s passion for flying in the museum hall

The 12 meters wide flying machine exhibited in the museum hall is the
proof of Leonardo da Vinci’s fascination for flying. As a young man, Leonardo
compares everything to the human body and tries to prove the existence of the
body’s mechanics, as shown in many of his flying machines plans. For instance,
Leonardo’s articulated glider was designed after a long observation of the
flight of bats and birds.

Meet Leonardo, military engineer

Leonardo
may be best known for being a humanist, for his art, his science and
philosophical thoughts, but he also was a military engineer who came up with
fearsome inventions.

While
working for Ludovic Sforza, the duke of Milan, his creativity for war machines
knew no bounds: catapult, crossbow, steam canon, assault chariot, fortress,
machine gun and even the wheel-lock musket who replaced the tedious use of
fuses.

Da Vinci Tour

Walk in the shoes of the greatest genius of all time

What
if you went on the same journey as Leonardo da Vinci? From his hometown in
Italy to
Le Clos Lucé in Amboise. Five
hundred years later, walk on the footprints of the greatest thinker of all
time.

With the Da Vinci Tour, follow Leonardo’s path across five different European cities

All the way through this « cultural, historical
and touristic road », from Vinci to Amboise and finally to Le Clos Lucé,
meet Leonardo da Vinci in the cities and places where he used to live, and gain
a better understanding of his daily life, his work and his environment.
Discover, with great emotion, the wonderful nature and the beautiful landscapes
that inspired Leonardo’s creations, those of Tuscany, Lombardi and the Val de
Loire, classified as World Heritage by UNESCO.

Be amazed by his masterpieces, especially The Annunciation and The Adoration of the Magi, at the famous
Uffizi museum in Florence, and The Last
Supper, at the Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan.

Mythical cities, splendid museums, majestic castles
and previously unseen exhibitions will open their doors to you. In Italy and
France.